About WoodMusICK COST Action

This Action (WoodMusICK - WOODen MUSical Instrument Conservation and Knowledge) aims to combine forces and to foster research on wooden musical instruments in order to preserve and develop the dissemination of knowledge on musical instruments in Europe through inter disciplinary research. This program involves curators and conservators on the one side, wood scientists, chemists and acousticians on the other side, and finally, researchers in organology and making of instruments.

As part of the CIMCIM (International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections) network, working with some members of the former WoodCultHer COST and with makers, the project will integrate study, conservation and preservation works on musical instruments in heritage, and will allow the different European teams working on wood to participate in research projects on musical instruments. The collaboration will help to develop cooperative programs on specific projects about the study and identification of artefacts and about the conservation of musical instruments.

The main objective of this COST Action will be to improve the conservation of our wooden musical instruments heritage by increasing interaction and synergy between wood scientists and other professionals (including instrument makers) applying wood science, curator, organologists and makers towards the study, conservation and restoration of wooden instrument collections of artistic or historic interest, and to offer a novel and reliable, independent and global knowledge on these collections.

The secondary objectives may be identified as follows:

The development of tools for the CH authorities, for the setting of the uniform cultural values (historical, aesthetical, acoustical, mechanical etc.) evaluations to define the object status;

To identify and to gather the community of end users in addition to the CH authorities (curators), such as makers associations, learned societies (musical instruments, organology, acoustics, etc.);

To put into evidence how the modern scientific knowledge on wood may contribute to diagnosis and conservation of wooden musical heritage;

To point out how the history of techniques may contribute to the understanding of the present state of this heritage;

To take into account the specific context of cultural heritage object to improve characterization techniques;

To favour meeting and interaction at both, scientific and practical level, of researchers in the field of wood and mechanics, specialists in conservation of wooden instruments and instrument makers which might successfully contribute to the history, diagnosis, restoration and conservation of wooden instruments;

To promote the diffusion of knowledge to the public thanks to the development of pedagogical tools;

To foster and stimulate the making of fac-simile objects thanks to the exchange with the makers.